A fairy at the bottom of the garden

Today we found a little grape-eating fairy at the bottom of our garden:

We gave Isla a special fairy costume as a present for doing really well with her potty training this week. She had a nice morning with her daddy going to the park on the bike and going to the pet shop. At the park Isla can now go on all the big slides herself and went very fast on the zip-wire (with a little bit of help). 

Making dough

Yesterday we had a play dough catastrophe! Our supply of yellow play dough was left our of its special box for two days and inevitably dried out into a useless lump. So Isla requested we make some more before breakfast. She was persuaded that we couldn't make good play dough on an empty stomach so waited until after cheerios and toast before requesting play dough making again.
The recipe we used was as follows:

1 cup water, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1/2 cup of salt, 1 tablespoon cream of tarter and lots of food colouring into a saucepan to warm. Then remove from the heat and stir in 2 cups of flour. I also added a teaspoon or two of glycerine which made the play dough nice and smooth.

Here is Isla after kneading the new red, superdooper play dough:

After making play dough, we went to the shoe shop as Isla's feet have grown to a size 7. They didn't have any shoes in her size that we liked. The only ones were sparkly rock star ones covered in silver sequins. We decided to try elsewhere and found some lovely blue trainers with bright green velcro straps, and some white sandals for the summer. We resisted buying some bright pink trainers with flashing lights and some butterfly covered sparkly shoes. Then we had an exciting trip to the toy shop to buy some things for Isla's cousin. We also had a look at a clothes shop and bought a pretty dress for Isla to wear to a wedding that we are going to next month.

In the afternoon, we went to Isla's friend's house on the edge of a valley nearby. We stroked her guinea pigs, Rosie and Patty, and also fed her chickens Ninny and Barbara. We also saw sheep outside her house, and heard pheasants calling nearby. It is a lovely place to live. Isla and her friend played hide and seek in the garden.

Today we went to a friend's house in the village and met her new baby who is six weeks old and very cute. Isla was intrigued by the baby and liked her a lot. She liked their dog just as much and stroked her when she came inside from the garden. She played hungry hippos with our friend's older son and also played shopping list, which she won at (although we cheated a bit as taking turns can be tricky to figure out when you're two).  This afternoon we have been reading some books such as 'Dogger'. 'Meg and Mog', 'Charlie is my darling' and 'I wish I was a cat' are all favourites at the moment. After that we played with our superdooper play dough and then Isla wanted to play some music to her baby sister in my tummy to make her dance. We got out some shakers and a drum and made a good racket, and then Isla sang 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' but changed the words so it was 'one for sister, one for mummy, one for daddy and one for Isla'. Then we watched for my tummy to dance with baby kicks, but she must have been asleep after the nursery rhyme! Isla went outside in our garden to feed the birds with her leftover toast crusts from this morning and here she is:

Playing at the park

A week or so ago, we went for a nice walk by the river. We found lots of dandelions to blow and also buttercups. We all liked butter as it turns out.

Everyone wanted to help with cooking lunch, even Monty:

Isla has been doing a lot of painting recently, and found out how to make green paint from blue and yellow:

Other people's shoes are very fun to walk in, especially Daddy's giant boots:

Isla's grandma and grandpa came to visit, which was lovely. We all went to lots of parks as the weather was fine. Grandma got her work-out for free this week:

Isla helped to plant out some tomato plants in our garden. We also now have runner beans, sweetpeas and lots of strawberry plants for the slugs and snails to eat! Isla has the job of going on a daily snail hunt and collects them in her bucket. She also loves to water all the plants, even if it is raining at the time.

She enjoyed Tumble Tots this week, especially the 'splat' apparatus which she went on over and over again. It is a big soft wedge on one end that they cling on to and get pushed over to splat on the mats below! We almost actually splatted a toddler who had wandered into the splatting zone. Isla is moving up to the next tumble tots group, so lets hope there is something as good as the splatter to try next time.

Sleepy cuddles after a tough morning of playing:

Dinan and St Malo

We had some tasty food and some nice walks in Dinan:

Isla was very excited to go on a little train around Dinan:

We headed up the river Rance towards St Malo, stopping at a little fishing village called St Suliac. There was a whole herd of large black dogs there, learning how to rescue people from the water and having a fun time swimming about!

We stopped off at the Barrage de Rance:

And then found a lovely sandy beach at Rotheneuf:

It was very sunny walking around St Malo, and very busy as well! We enjoyed looking at the boats outside the walls, and saw a very grand boat from the Cook Islands.

The view from our hotel in Dinan:

We got the ferry home from St Malo to Portsmouth. It was a sunny, calm crossing:

We had a delicious lunch on board the ferry with a dessert buffet!!!!!!!!!

Isla enjoyed being in our cabin and playing with her toys as well as exploring the ship:

On the bow, arriving in Portsmouth:

The lightship we moored next to when we sailed here on our little yacht: